When Children Are Raped, Abused & Killed
When innocent children are brutally abused, and raped for years or even eventually killed what is the reason for that?
Is it a punishment? Little ones have done nothing wrong unless we say that they have done wrong before they were born, but then if that is so should not the punishment be in the same place where the wrong act has been committed?
Is it that they are a sacrifice? Why should a child be a sacrifice? It is one thing to be a sacrifice and you die the same day, but year after year a sacrifice?
The failure of doctrine to give a real answer.
It is one of those questions I have on my mind all the time as I read the terrible news of child abuse. I don't know the reason for it but one could speculate that all of us in the pre-existence knew where we will be born and under what circumstances and we decided to come anyways because we knew we wanted to return to Heavenly Father one day. That's just one of my thoughts.
How can one know what one wants if they have not experienced it? Can you know if you will like to live in Afghanistan with the Taliban as a woman if you have no prior knowledge of what that entails? Or are you proposing that some children accepted that they would be abused and tortured for years? I cannot think of ANY situation where I will allow my children to be subject to abuse and torture for years. Can you?
QUOTE (JB @ 15-Feb 09, 12:26 AM) |
I cannot think of ANY situation where I will allow my children to be subject to abuse and torture for years. Can you? |
They may have accepted them but could they have known the ramifications of such a decision? Not only to be abused but possibly to also become abusers to others? We must also look at this point then... is Free Agency more powerful than God's ability to not allow this to happen? Or are we saying that this is the only way? Can it be comparable to Christ and the Cup and asking if there was no other way?
I think that this is an extension of the problem of evil. I do not think anyone has solved the problem yet LDS or not. So I guess anyone's guess is as good as another. I guess we can even say if God knows that such things were going to happen and he allows such immorality to do so, then is he not morally responsible for what happened? I am not sure.
The question of any type of foreknowledge in the world has its problems as has been mentioned already. How does God know that something will happen if we have our free agency to choose? How can we say in the pre-existence that we choose an expereince that we do not understand being that we had no bodies or experienced sin before? How can we agree without knowing full well in the pre-existence what abuse and sin are? I am not sure if that is an informed choice. So I guess we can ask questions questions about god's power and our extent of knowledge in pre-existence. I for one do not think god is all knowing or all powerful in the absolute since, rather he has all maximal power but not absolute.
QUOTE (Isiah53) |
I think that this is an extension of the problem of evil. |
QUOTE |
I am not sure if that is an informed choice. |
While this is hard to look at from a strictly logical view(I am thinking how angry I would be if my children were subjected to such abuse and torture), I would have to ask, what should God do in these circumstance? Should God stop every misuse of free agency each and every time he sees it occurring, even in the terrible case of rape, murder and torture. I cannot fathom God intervening, on a regular basis, without disrupting the entire reason for mortal life.
There has got to be alot of patience, foreknowledge, perspective by God, to not stop every evil act against a child. I do not believe I have enough of these qualities to understand every reason for the suffering in children.
I would like to pick the brain of Alma and have a more clear explanation of why he did not stop the death and burning of the righteous when he was with Amulek, if he had the power to do so.
In considering the prophesied events before the Second Coming, is there any doubt that we will see more mistreatment of children here on Earth? I believe our task is to stop the suffering of children where ever we can, even if it means we must take drastic measures to stop those that perpetrate such acts (the death penalty for child rapists and murders. Or at least castration.)